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Minutes for HB2208 - Committee on Health and Human Services
Short Title
Reducing certain requirements for licensure by the behavioral sciences regulatory board, requiring board approval to provide clinical social work supervision and expanding out-of-state temporary permits to practice.
Minutes Content for Thu, Feb 11, 2021
David Fye, Executive Director, Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board (BSRB), provided testimony in support of HB2208. The BSRB requested HB2208. The 2019 legislature passed a bill that lowered the hour requirements for post-graduate supervised work experience toward a clinical work license from 4000 hours to 3000 hours of supervised work. The direct supervision hours were also reduced from 150 to 100 hours. This bill expands these reduced hours to include licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, Professional Counselors, Master Level Psychologists and Addiction Counselors. The BSRB is convinced that lowering the hours will make it easier to be clinically licensed while maintaining essential safety to the public. The bill also includes language to allow clinical supervision to be done over televideo, rather than in-person. The BSRB is able to offer temporary out-of-state permits to practitioners in other states for up to 15 days of in-state practice. This practice has had low participation but has seen an increase due to Covid-19. A list of adjustments made to the temporary out-of-state permits was provided to the committee. HB2208 also includes language to require Board-approved clinical supervisors for social workers and establishes a one time maximum fee cap of $50. Mr. Fye reviewed additional provisions that are in the bill (Attachment 6).
Kyle Kessler, Executive Director, Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas (CMHCs), noted that the bulk of the provisions in HB2208 are either recommendations of the Mental Health Modernization and Reform Committee or in line with the conversations that occurred with the Committee related to the behavioral health workforce issue in the state.Mr. Kessler noted that telemedicine has been a game-changer for behavioral health treatment during the pandemic. Telemedicine in the rural areas has been used for decades. Gaps in broadband and technology hardware has been an issue. The use of telephones has been a significant addition. CMHCs strongly support supervision by televideo (Attachment 7).
Becky Fast, Executive Director, National Association of Social Workers-Kansas Chapter (NASW-KS), provided testimony in support of HB2208 with amended changes. NASW-KS supports the work that the Special Committee on Kansas Mental Health Modernization and Reform to address recruitment, retention and staffing shortages. In regards to the workforce shortage, the organization suggests amending the bill to eliminate the 350 hours of direct client contact required during the master of social work field internship. NASW-KS also would like the new supervisor requirements removed from the bill. Only 17 other states have similar requirements. The Chapter supports modernizing licensing definitions to include telehealth service options. Ms. Fast provided current statistics on the the number of qualified mental health professionals in Kansas, Colorado, Missouri and Oklahoma (Attachment 8).
Tonya Ricklefs, PhD, Social Work Department Chair, Washburn University, provided testimony on the positive impact that the passage of HB2208 would have on social work students. Updating the face-to-face requirement for direct service hours to include telehealth services and dropping the direct client contact hours will remove an unnecessary burden. Delivering telehealth services will not disappear after the pandemic. Rural areas are struggling to access care. Dropping the direct face-to-face expectations for social work students will support our Kansas students in achieving their educational goals (Attachment 9).
Rachel Marsh, CEO, Children's Alliance of Kansas, provided testimony in support of HB2208. The organization provides a full array of service through it 18 private, non-profit child welfare agencies. Kansas has a shortage of workers in mental health and substance abuse disorder treatment. Child welfare providers frequently serve as master level practicum sites. The organization is concerned with the 'board-approved' requirement for supervision of social workers seeking clinical licensing. There is a concern that this new requirement will disrupt access to clinical supervision hours, especially during the pandemic. This may become a deterrent to expanding the workforce of clinical social workers. The organization asks that this provision be stricken from the bill or, at least, grandfather in current clinical supervisors (Attachment 10).
The conferees responded to questions from the committee.
The following provided written only testimony:
Linda Bass, President, KVC Kansas (Attachment 11)
Andrew Secor, Legislative and Advocacy Chair, Kansas Counseling Association (Attachment 12)
Kerry Jossie, LMFT (Attachment 13)
Stuart Little, President, Behavioral Health Association of Kansas (Attachment 14)
Cynthia Schendel, LSCSW (Attachment 15)
Tim DeWeese, Director, Johnson County Mental Health (Attachment 16)
